What Not To Post On Your Facebook Page - A Guide For Businesses

Facebook is used by so many people for business that it is hard to compete, stand out, and know what not to post on your Facebook page. From your description in Facebook’s “About” section to the nature of your posts and your replies to comments and messages, anything you do here determines the image your potential clients will have of you.

Posting to a personal account, instead of a business page

When you first get set up on Facebook, you don’t know a lot about it and, since starting out with that account, you just keep posting on it. That will not allow you to scale your Facebook marketing, as it really doesn’t allow you to post ads and boost your post. Check out this post by to find out how you can set up a business page.

Leave “About” blank

Make your Facebook page your own by talking about your business and what is unique about you as a service provider, in the “About section.” Don’t miss the opportunity to also fill in your contact info here, you want to make it as easy as possible for potential clients to contact you.

Too much personal info

The first thing I’ve noticed a lot of people doing on their business pages is share photos of their kids, their day to day activities etc. The truth is, nobody wants to know where you went on vacation.

Well, maybe some people do, but those are your friends, not your customers. When someone clicked that like button on your page, they did it because they wanted to know more about your area of expertise. After seeing that first family vacay shot they will unfollow you, and you will deserve it.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t add your personal touch to any post – a reshare with your unique voice behind that description is why people liked your page in the first place. If you are running a local business, covering events in your community is actually a good way to gain traction.

It’s even better if you are part of them. If you own a restaurant and you are taking part in a food drive, it’s a way to show your local involvement, network and build relationships, online and offline.

Not showing off your personality

Ok, so I said you shouldn’t use your Facebook business page to post intimate details but that doesn’t make that you shouldn’t put your personal spin on everything. The way you caption your share, comment or present your offers are what make your voice unique. Establish a tone of voice in order to build that into having a personalized audience.

Promotional content – all day long, all the time

Nobody will interact with your page if all you do on it is try to hook customers. Facebook, like all social media – is more like a game of seduction.

You have to start slow and unassuming, put out content that will make people want to interact with your page. Those likes and comments will keep them coming in, visiting and sharing your posts. In order to achieve that, you need to provide both entertainment and information, before getting to the selling part.

Too much of the same thing

Ok, too much promotional content is bad, but how about entertaining stuff? Everybody likes that, right? Well, yes, but it will not help your business in any way to just make people laugh. Think about who you want to attract – if you put up informational content or promos and you get some unfollows out of it, that’s ok, because those were not your target customers in the first place.

Putting out just informational content will drive in less likes and therefore, less clicks. However, not putting anything on your page of real value is a shallow approach. This is the image you are creating to your audience, and, at the end of the day, they will want to work with someone that really knows their stuff.

A perfect balance is something that works for you, on an individual level, and one strategy will not work for all businesses, but focus on having the three – information, entertainment and exclusive offers.

Anything not related to your audience and line of work

Well this one is pretty self-explanatory, but if you post cat videos but sell tractors, the traffic you might gain to you Facebook page from shares or likes of those videos will not increase your customer base.

Get on track with what your field has to offer. The first thing you can do is spy on a successful page by your competition, and see which of their posts get the most likes and shares. This doesn’t mean that you should share their posts – just try to figure out which type of content will be better for your audience.

Low quality content, in the form on video, blog posts, or too much of that Monday stuff

People don’t interact with a page because they see one piece of content they like, but because they regularly get good content out of it. Be selective about what you post, which means picking your best blog posts, sharing content you would find valuable, and overusing quotes, morning coffee pics and Monday puns.

Coming back to my previous example, if you are selling tractors, have your page become the resource that you wish you had when picking out your first tractor.

Blog posts with no meta-description

Check out this post with a description and this other one without any:

Meta-descriptions allow users to quickly grasp what your blog post is about and figure out if they want to read it or not.

They are set up by you on your blog, and will also help with on-page SEO, by signaling to Google which keywords you are targeting and hoping to rank for. If you don’t have one, that section will still be populated on Facebook, but you will have no control over what goes on there.

The meta description also helps you by offering valuable info about the page you are sharing, leaving you to write your own interesting take on it and call to action in the description section above the post.

If you are using WordPress, an easy way to be able to add meta-descriptions to your site is installing a plugin like Yoast. It will also help you do the math on how many times you are using certain keywords and if your titles and metas read well in Google.

Give credit where credit is due

Sharing a piece of content by just copying the link instead of sharing from the page you got it from is unethical and sort of frowned upon in the Facebook community. It’s best you give credit to the original sharer, and it can also help form a relationship with others in your field.

Be slow to respond

You know your audience doesn’t like to be ignored, so be aware that starting that page involves a commitment to answering messages and comments at all times.

Posting automatically all the time, although efficient as you get to plan your content beforehand, can lead to minimum interaction and perhaps ignoring valuable leads.

There are, of course, times when schedules posts come in useful, but your fans need some loving, the kind that you can only provide in person.

Posting too often / not often enough

Posting randomly, instead of having a game plan may lead to having weeks go by without a post or share.

The opposite may also happen, where you spam your audience and they unfollow you. Although the latter is quite common, my biggest concern is not interacting enough.

Facebook will only display content from pages you have recently interacted with, so that lack of shares, likes and comments could get you on the bottom of the endless Facebook barrel. Having likeable content is crucial, so really keep an eye on what you post as well.

I guess there is one story to be learned with Facebook – be consistent. If you set up that Facebook page, even put money in gaining likes and followers, post often, post on interesting subjects, and respond to comments and messages. If you don’t keep that audience engaged it’s not worth the investment, as Facebook will hide your page and you will be forever stuck in the “I liked that about a year ago” bubble.